Paging the Laws of War, Daily Brief September 19, 2024

Exploding thousands of electronic devices in people’s hands and pockets may be unique in the history of warfare, but the familiar laws of war still apply.

On Tuesday, pagers and other personal devices blew up across Lebanon and parts of Syria – in markets, grocery stores, and other crowded, public places. The explosions killed at least a dozen people, including at least two children and two health workers. More than 2,800 people were injured, according to Lebanon’s Ministry of Health.

Then, yesterday, a new set of blasts likewise hit walkie-talkies across Lebanon, killing at least 20 people and wounding more than 450 others.

Hospitals in Lebanon have been overwhelmed with the victims. Adults and children were rushed to emergency rooms suffering from severe injuries consistent with the detonation of high explosives.

The intended targets of these widespread attacks were apparently members and associates of Hezbollah. In a statement, the Lebanese armed group said the pagers belonged “to employees of various Hezbollah units and institutions.” They blamed the Israeli government for the explosions.

US officials and former Israeli officials have also said Israel was responsible for the attack. The Israeli military has not commented.

Many questions are still swirling around these incidents, including technical ones. How is it even possible to put explosive charges in so many electronic devices unnoticed in the first place?

But one thing is clear enough: such attacks violate the laws of war. There’s at least one general and one specific point to make here.

First, the general. One of the foundations of international humanitarian law is that all warring parties must distinguish, or discriminate, between military targets, which are legitimate, and civilians, which are not.

You may be intending to kill an enemy fighter, but you cannot do it with an indiscriminate weapon, showing no regard for the civilians close to the device who may be killed and injured as well. Media report that one of the victims was a nine-year old girl who picked up her father’s pager when it beeped.

In this sense, setting off simultaneous explosives in thousands of personal devices without knowing where they are and who they are with runs the same risks as bombing from the skies without looking: other people – innocent people, civilians, including children – may be around.

The attacker can’t see who will be hit beforehand and where they are. Is the explosive about to go off in a crowded market? Is it on the table at a family meal? Did a child find the pager in the car and pick it up to have a closer look?

The mini-bombs were blown up in unknown circumstances, in unknown surroundings. It’s the very definition of indiscriminate.

There’s also at least one specific point regarding the violation of the laws of war here. As my expert colleague, Lama Fakih, has explained: “customary international humanitarian law prohibits the use of booby traps – objects that civilians are likely to be attracted to or are associated with normal civilian daily use.”

Indiscriminate attacks and booby traps are prohibited to avoid putting civilians at grave risk – to avoid the devastating scenes we’ve seen across Lebanon this week.

Any government concerned with upholding international humanitarian law ought to be concerned with helping to get justice for the innocent victims of these mass bombings.